LEGAL AID: JUDGES VS GOVERNMENT

Last week, campaigners urged justice secretary Kenneth Clarke to show legal aid some love. This week, the judiciary had their say on the legal aid green paper. Afua Hirsch reports:

In an unprecedented criticism of government plans to reduce the legal aid budget by £350m, judges have said that removing funding from whole areas of law... would lead to an "inevitable" decline in the quality of justice in courts in England and Wales.

JULIAN ASSANGE TO BE EXTRADITED

On Thursday chief magistrate Howard Riddle ruled that Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to answer accusations of rape and sexual assault. The judgment, damning in its criticism of Assange's Swedish lawyer, can be read in full here.

On Twitter, @KateGomery thought the characters were "insufferably earnest and naive" and the plot "obvious and dull". @ltdraper was more positive, "Moffat's strong clerks show that there is more to the Bar than just the barrister."